WEBVTT - The History of Texas Instruments - Part One 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:06.880 It's ready, Are you hey there, Tex Stuff listeners. This 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:09.239 is Jonathan Strickland and I have got a request for 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:11.479 all of you. Now. Chris and I have decided that 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:13.800 we're going to try and experiment. We're doing our first 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:17.600 crowdsourced episode of tech Stuff and we want to know 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.920 what your pick is for the worst video game of 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:26.480 all time. Now, nominations you can. You can make one nomination. 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:28.960 You nominate one game, and you need to tell us 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:31.240 the name of the game and the platform it was on. 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:33.239 And it could be any platform. It could be an 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:37.600 arcade game, it could be a PC, Mac, Xbox, PS three, 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:42.360 Nintendo handheld console. It can be web based if you like. 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:44.479 But just you let us know what the platform is 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:46.400 so we can make sure we count that as the votes. 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:51.760 So you can nominate your game either through email, which 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:55.360 is text stuff at how stuff works dot com, or 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:59.280 you can nominate through Twitter or Facebook. And we're gonna 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:02.440 put a cut off date on this. I want to 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:04.680 have the episode go up by the end of September 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:08.240 of eleven. So let's say you need to get your 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:13.480 nominations in by September eleven, So if you get those 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.959 nominations into us, we will make sure we include those 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:20.120 in the process and we will have an episode where 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:23.520 we give you the worst video games of all time 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:26.600 based upon the votes of our listeners. Thanks a lot. 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:31.119 You can't wait to hear from you. Get in touch 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:40.319 with technology with tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.120 Hello again, everyone, and welcome to tech Stuff. My name 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:45.200 is Chris Poett and I am an editor of how 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:47.800 stuff works dot com. Sitting and cross from me as 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:54.520 always is senior writer Jarthans tickling you you didn't leave 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:59.800 a bar of soap when you left me. You don't 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:03.720 know that song. I'll introduce it to you afterwards. That's 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:05.600 the very first line too, so that makes it very 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:08.560 easy to find that song. We're gonna start this off 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:18.560 with a little Google Plus suggestion. This comes from Kyle 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:20.960 who says you could do a podcast on the history 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.600 of Texas instruments. You're right, Kyle, we could do that, 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:31.160 and in fact we shall. Yes, this this was this 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:33.000 is a challenge. You know. It's funny with all these 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:36.959 um with all these different tech companies with the storied past, 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:40.760 like we did with IBM, and now with Texas Instruments, um, 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:45.280 you start looking in into their history and wow, yeah, 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:47.520 there's a lot to it. Yeah, especially when you know 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:50.280 you can't just say, hey, the company started on this 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:52.400 date and here's what they did, because it's a little 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:56.840 more complicated than that. Yep. And um, I promised Jonathan 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.360 a vocoder reference and he wasn't ready for this. Or 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:03.560 actually it wasn't vocoder so much as it was auto tune. 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.240 We did a podcast on auto tune some time ago, 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:12.080 and along with the technology for that. Uh. Texas Instruments 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.440 also has a similar history because it began as an 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:19.800 oil exploration company sort of using seismology in order to 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.880 detect oil deposits. Yeah, yeah, this is really interesting. Let's 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:29.640 say cast our minds back to n UM. There was 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:34.240 a company founded by several people, including one Eugene McDermott, 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:38.200 and the company was called Geophysical Service Incorporated or g 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:43.400 s I, and this company was specialized in using seismology, 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:47.800 methodology and equipment in order to search for oil deposits. 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:50.760 So this is a company that would go out survey 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.440 an area attempt to find whether or not any oil 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:58.520 maybe underneath that particular area, and then an oil drilling 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.560 company would come in and drill for that oil. Yeah. 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:05.240 We talked about oil exploration technology and the UM in 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:10.000 another podcast again UM, and this this also was I 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:12.600 guess like an early version of the technology we talked 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:16.960 about then, because what they would do, UM would be 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.880 vibrate the the Earth's surface by setting off little explosions 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.440 called shots. And then what they would do is record 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:26.919 in time the sound waves that would reflect back in 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:29.200 order to get a good idea of where the oil was. Yeah, 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:32.920 that would give the time between the impact of the 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:36.160 explosion and the echo would give an indication of what 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:40.760 the ground below what it was made of, because sound 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:46.360 will travel at different rates through uh, different medium. Okay, yeah, 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:50.440 the echo, Yes, the echo, Yes, the echoes. So yeah, 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:53.120 this was back in which was sort of an auspicious 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.520 time to be starting a new company. H That was 0:04:56.600 --> 0:05:00.480 back of course you might remember, Um, No, I don't, 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:04.320 I'm not that old, the Great Depression. No, I I 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:07.520 just I didn't think it was that great. It's kind 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.240 of a lousy depression. But they did file papers in 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:15.080 New Jersey to incorporate the company Geophysical Service in May 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:19.000 in May thirty, May sixteen, specifically, yeah, Well let's let's uh, 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.040 we could talk more about what they did back then, 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.159 but let's really get to the interesting part. So let's 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.240 let's get ahead a little bit. Well, I was going 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.520 to point out that, uh, just a couple little short, 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:30.920 little interesting facts. You know, Jonathan and I do tend 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:34.400 to get off on these weird little tangents. Um, yeah, 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:38.400 they're trying to hold onto Yep. There. They actually changed 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:41.080 the name of the company in nineteen thirty nine to 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:46.320 Coronando Corporation because their competitors were a little concerned that 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:50.479 they might be withholding proprietary information and g s. I was, Uh, 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.960 they had gotten into the business of exploring for oil themselves. Um, 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:57.120 so they were licensing the technology and a an oil 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:02.920 company picked up Coronando Corporation. Um. The company actually ended 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.360 up being Amaco, which I think is funny, just a weird. 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:11.080 Isn't Cora Nando the name of an abba song? No, okay, 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:15.200 I'm thinking of something else, yes, sorry, Um, well, I 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:18.600 can't hear the drums. However, So Eugene McDermott was one 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:22.840 of those founders. What he was joined by uh few 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:26.120 other people including A Cecil H. Green and Jay Eric 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:32.479 Johnson In nineteen forty one, they bought Geophysical Service Incorporated. 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:35.480 They purchased the company. Uh. Yeah, they bought it back 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:38.560 from the oil company. I think the next day there 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:41.680 was the attack on Pearl Harbor. Yes, exactly. I do 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.040 not suggest. I'm not suggesting in any way that there 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:47.000 was any correlation between these two events. Yeah. They As 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.320 a matter of fact, the quote from t I was 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.360 that if the financing was not completed and in place 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:57.760 with within ten days by Monday, December eighth, ninety one, 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:02.880 the say would be terminated, our negotiations would be terminy. 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:09.000 That was actually the quote from their stuff. In. Yes, 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:11.840 they're still doing the same thing that they were doing before. 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:13.760 It is just now it's it's owned by new people. 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:21.880 In they hire an electrical engineer, um Patrick Haggarty, and 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:26.160 Haggarty has becomes the general manager of a division of 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:31.800 Geophysical Service Incorporated called the Laboratory. Look I said laboratory. 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.680 I knew I was practicing, So I wouldn't say laboratory 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:40.560 over and over the Laboratory and Manufacturing division, so or 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:43.680 L and M he As a matter of fact, Uh, 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:47.520 Haggarty had been a lieutenant in the UM I believe 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:52.520 in the Navy a lieutenant you mean seriously, he was 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:57.320 the procurement officer for the Magnetic Anomaly Detector project and 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.440 that the m A D project was actually one of 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:06.600 uh DO physical services. Um I did say that, right, right? Yes, 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.000 I keep thinking t I. That was there one of 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:11.480 their contributions to the war effort here in the United States. 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:15.360 So he was already working with the company from the 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.600 military side, so he was already known to them. So 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.760 he was working on the the M A D project, right, 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:27.679 So he had mad skills. So next all right? Anyway, Yeah, 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:31.840 he joins and L and M. That division starts to 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:36.000 get lots and lots of business, mainly through military contracts. 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:39.240 Uh And in fact, it gets so much business that 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:44.080 it starts to dwarf the exploratory business of G s I. 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:48.800 So in nineteen fifty one, the owners and Haggardy all 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:53.959 decided to restructure the company and last time. But L 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:57.360 and M now becomes the major part of the company 0:08:57.480 --> 0:08:59.959 and G s I becomes a division within L and MS. 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.680 So it's the old Switcher rou because before it was 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.000 the the opposite, right, G s I was in charge 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:07.280 and ellen M was a division. Now ln MS on 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.840 top time. They renamed the company and they call it 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:19.320 General Instruments Incorporated. General Instruments Major. It was a major disaster. Actually, no, no, no, 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:22.640 General Instruments. The problem. There was one problem, which was 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:26.160 that there's another company I believe it was on the 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.600 Eastern seaboard, and I think it was a defense contractor 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.600 that already had that name. So they said, hey, we've 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:34.920 got that name. You say, why are you so defensive? Right? 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:40.320 So in nineteen wow, in ninety two, uh, the company 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:44.280 undergoes a name change to Texas Instruments or t I 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:46.800 for short. I like that name. I think they should 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.600 stick with it, yeah, and uh, fortunately so did they 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:54.319 and they did so. Getting back to what they were 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.679 working on before they became t I. But you know, 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:00.800 it was essentially the same company that would become t I. Uh. 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:06.079 Their their contracts included things like building up submarine detection 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:10.880 equipment and uh and radar controlled bomb sites. So we're 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:15.040 talking about some high tech stuff for the military right now. 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:19.320 That's really their main customer at this point. Uh. And 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.400 you know, they had plenty of business because first there 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:26.640 was the aftermath of World War Two, and then there 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:30.880 was the Korean War, and so the war was keeping 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:33.840 them going, but they knew that they had to diversify 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:37.760 in order to become a successful company, and so they 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:42.160 looked into various other industries they could start to make 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:47.439 headway into so that they're not just a military defense contractor. 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:52.880 And one of those industries was the burgeoning vacuum tube industry. 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:56.880 And we talked about vacuum tubes recently in our Theramin podcast, 0:10:57.360 --> 0:10:59.200 So if you want to learn more about vacuum tubes 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:01.680 I recommend you you listen to that because they're actually 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:04.720 we do a quick, down and dirty description of what 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:08.040 a vacuum tube is and what it does. But in 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:14.760 Night something happened that really revolutionized the electronics industry, and 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:19.199 at the time, not everyone saw it as a revolution, 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:24.040 but it would turn out to be the big thing 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:27.800 that would that would shape all electronics for that point forward. 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:34.800 And that was a little invention from Bell Laboratories. You 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:39.160 know what I'm talking about. Maybe it was the transistor. 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:42.680 I feel like we've touched on the transistor. We've talked 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:45.920 about transistors a lot in this podcast, so you can 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:47.880 find plenty of other episodes where we talked about what 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:51.719 transistors are and what they do. But the the introduction 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:55.439 of the transistor was a pretty big deal, although again 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.160 not everyone recognized it as such because vacuum tubes did 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:00.720 the same thing as transistors. They look up more space, 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:03.400 they gave off a lot more heat, but they were 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.199 they were a proven technology, and the transistor was kind 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.400 of a prototype and and no one really saw a 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:13.000 way to make it practical from the the first introduction. 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:16.720 It was more like a curiosity. Yeah, speaking of curiosity, 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.600 if you're interested in learning specifically about transistors, we do 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.040 have an article on the site too by Nathan Chandler 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:27.000 about how transistors work. Yes, and uh, if you want to. Well, 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.760 the one person who did recognize that the transistor could 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.000 be a big deal, besides the people in Bell laboratories, 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:37.760 was Haggardy and so he wanted to pursue a license 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:43.360 from Western Electric to get the Bell transistor. And at 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:47.520 first their initial requests were denied. And that had to 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:50.240 do with a lot of different things. For one, Western 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:54.599 Electric supposedly did not see t I as being capable 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:58.480 of are actually at this point still uh general it 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.240 was still g s I, but they didn't see g 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:04.200 s I as being capable of producing transistors in a 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:07.400 in a manufacturing process. So that was the first reason. 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:11.000 But there's also there's a complicated relationship with the US 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:15.080 military where they're Western Electrics being told by one branch 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:18.320 of the government, you need to keep the transistor under 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:21.840 wraps because this information, if it got into the hands 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:26.280 of unfriendly entities, could be very harmful for US. And 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:28.400 then you had another part of the US government saying, 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:32.600 you can't sit on this information. That's uh, anti competitive 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.400 and it is hurting industry, so you've got to share it. 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:37.680 So they were kind of in a tough spot, but 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:41.199 eventually they got clearance from the government. Western Electric did 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:47.000 to license the technology of the transistor to any NATO country, 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:51.120 any any company within a NATO country, and uh, well, 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.760 Texas is in a NATO country because they still haven't 0:13:54.800 --> 0:14:00.080 declared their independence. So Texas Instrument immediately jumped on that 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.880 opportunity and secured a license for the princely sum of 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:07.960 twenty five thousand dollars, which was a lot of money. 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:10.760 In it's a lot of money right now. It's not 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:15.160 as much though, but yes, and uh that was secured 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:20.360 in nineteen fifty one. So then we've got the license 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:24.200 that is going to give Texas Instrument its foundation for 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:28.360 business for the foreseeable future. And j. Eric Johnson actually 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.040 said this is a quote. Finally, we have purchased from 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:33.800 the Western Electric Company a license under which we may 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:38.360 manufacture transistors and related semiconductor devices. The transistor is a 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:42.720 very new development, primarily of Bell Telephone Laboratories, which promises 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:46.000 to revolutionize electronics. It is in a general sort of way, 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.800 a substitute for the vacuum tube. There is little question 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.760 but the transistors and related devices will play an exceedingly 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:56.600 important part in our future. That way very true, Yeah, yeah, 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:59.160 very very true. And in fact Bell Laboratories held a 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:02.880 symposium about transistors because it was such a new technology 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:06.080 that even people who were licensing it really had very 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.400 little knowledge about what what they could do and how 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:13.000 they were made. Yeah, they jumped right in n three, 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:15.960 They were going gangbusters on trying to come up with 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:21.160 new technologies. Um, the Semiconductor Products Division was announced or 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.520 was started in nineteen three, and they produced the first 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:29.000 commercial silicon transistor in ninety four, also the first germanium 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.560 high frequency transistor. They were they started and uh, you 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:35.480 know right away, yeah, and it was. It was pretty interesting. 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:38.520 I mean, like four of the people, well t I 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.800 sent four people to that symposium I had mentioned. One 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:45.160 of them was was Haggardy UH and another was a 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:48.640 fellow named Mark Shepard, who would later on become the 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:53.240 head of Texas Instruments UM. And they actually watched a 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:57.920 very very technical presentation from Bell Laboratories. Man I almost 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.240 stood it again Bell Labs. They saw a very technical 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:05.240 UH symposium and they synthesize that information, brought it back 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.920 and started to really work on things. They had to 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:12.040 create a device called a crystal pullar because at the 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:15.560 heart of the transistor is the earliest ones they were 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:19.120 using was were germanium crystals. And in order to create 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:22.480 the germanium crystals the the wafers that they would use 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:27.360 as the foundation for these UH these transistors, they used 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:29.840 a crystal pullar. And what a crystal pullar is is 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:35.160 essentially there's a there's a crucible where you melt germanium 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:38.520 and then what you do is you insert a pure 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:43.360 germanium crystal seed and you put that into the molten 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:47.080 germanium mix, and you start rotating the seed and slowly 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:50.880 withdrawing it from the mix. And you will start to 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:56.360 create a crystal essentially like a crystal rod um, but 0:16:56.640 --> 0:17:00.680 it's a very exact process and also will have to 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:04.000 introduce certain impurities into the mix in order to dope 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:08.479 the material. We've talked about doping semiconductors before, and if 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:10.440 you haven't, if you're not familiar with that, you should 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.280 probably listen to some of our other episodes. But in general, 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:16.679 what makes a semi conductor or semiconductor is the doping 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:22.600 process because a pure uh semiconductor would not really conduct electricity. 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:27.600 That semiconductor is dope. Wow, we are just insane today anyway. 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:30.840 Uh So, the crystal poller was a pretty cool thing. 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:35.000 You can actually find some neat illustrations and pictures online 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.120 of these crystal pollers and and they're kind of medieval looking, 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.879 fascinating though fascinating stuff. So, as Chris was saying, they 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.679 started to introduce transistors. The first two they trend they 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:49.479 introduced never really took off. It was the Type one 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.360 and Type one. And the reason they never really took 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.880 off is the Texas Instruments discovered there was a manufacturing 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:01.200 problem and so they discontinued pretty quickly, like with it 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:03.480 less than a year after they had introduced them. But 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:08.000 in nineteen fifty three, that's in September, they introduced types 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:10.520 one oh two and one oh three. Now, what I 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.280 find interesting about these two types of transistors, and we're 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:15.520 not going to talk about every single transistor t I 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.760 produced because that would that would take several podcasts easily. 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:22.000 But types one O two and one oh three are 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:26.840 interesting to me in particular because of a fellow named D. D. 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:35.280 Mac McBride. So McBride actually manufactured these transistors. He put 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:39.200 them together by hand. Yeah, that doesn't seem like a 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:41.399 time consuming process at all. Yeah, he would have to 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:45.240 look through a microscope and lay out the transistor by hand. 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:50.200 And uh, using this method, he could produce about thirty 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:54.600 transistors every two days, so averaging fifteen a day. Not 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:59.280 the most efficient process. Also, there was no guarantee that 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:01.840 any two and sistors would have the exact same properties. 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:04.800 They might have very similar properties, but the crystal pulling 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:10.119 technique was not so exact as to produce uh, perfect replicans. 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:13.760 So yeah, you could have you would have a type 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:15.800 one O two or a Type one oh three transistor. 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:19.280 You might not necessarily have set out to make a 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:21.919 one o two versus a one oh three. You were 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:23.960 making a transistor, and then after you made it, you 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:26.800 would test the transistor to see what properties it had, 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:29.080 and then you would categorize it as either a one 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:31.159 o two or one oh three. It seems like they 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:33.320 should come up with a process for making that faster 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:36.679 and more reliable. Well, they did, but it took a while. Uh. 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:40.560 They also they also experiment with other transistor materials. There 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:45.320 was something called a grown junction transistor um and you know, 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:48.199 they're mostly using germanium still at this point, but they 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:51.400 did start to experiment with silicon. In fact, Texas Instruments 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:53.600 was one of the first companies to do that. Although 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:58.240 there are disputes disputed reports about other companies that were 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:01.560 working on it around the same time, possibly earlier. What 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:05.280 isn't under any sort of dispute is that Texas Instrument 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:12.560 launched the first commercial silicon based transistor. Texas Instruments did 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:15.040 do that, although other companies were working on it at 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:17.960 the same time. Yeah, they did. They bought some silicon 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:21.920 material from DuPont Um, the chemical giant, and grew a 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:26.399 crystal from that apparently was ready to go on April fourteenth, 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:30.920 ninety four UM and then they announced on May ten 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:35.120 of that year the the availability of grown junction silicon transistors. 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:39.240 And around around that same time you might be asking, Okay, 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:41.520 well they're building all these transistors, who are they building 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.200 them for? Well, that's that's kind of what Texas Instruments 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.800 had to ask. Because there was such a new technology, 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:52.080 no one had really figured out how to incorporate it, 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:55.360 uh and Texas Instruments had to take it upon itself 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:58.879 to teach the world what the transistors could do and 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:02.160 how they could be used, which to me actually reminds 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.880 me of a lot of modern day electronics companies where 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:10.080 they'll produce a new device that doesn't seemingly have a 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:15.919 a space to fill, right, but show off the technology. Right. 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:20.280 But I'm thinking right now specifically of the iPad, because 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.520 you have the iPad where it was this this device 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:27.440 that doesn't really fill a gap, like there's not like 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:31.119 a space in technology where you'd say, oh, I was 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:33.399 missing this, and then the iPad came along and that 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:35.520 fills that gap. It doesn't mean that the iPad is 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:37.040 not useful, and it doesn't mean that it's not a 0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:41.040 great device. It just means that Apple had this uphill battle. 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:43.600 They had to prove that you want you there would 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:46.560 be reasons to want one, and they did prove that 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:49.120 and they were successful at it. Well. Texas Instrument had 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:52.560 the same problem. They had to prove that the transistor 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.119 was something you would want. And when I say you, 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:58.639 I'm talking about other companies here, companies that produce other stuff, 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:05.240 because Texas Instrument its customers were all other companies, not consumers. Uh. So, 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:09.800 first they struck up a relationship with the Sauna Tone 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:15.800 Corporation making transistors for hearing aids. Yeah. But the problem, 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:20.000 as I've mentioned before that hearing aids uh hearing aids 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:26.040 need a very sort of precise uh electronic circuitry in 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:29.720 order to work properly clearly in orders for the sound 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:32.600 that you hear to be in the right range for 0:22:32.720 --> 0:22:35.159 human hearing. Otherwise, of course you're not really helping out. 0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:37.600 It's not hearing aid, it's a it's a hearing detriment. 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:40.960 So that was a challenge because, like I said, the 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:44.200 transistors that they were producing didn't all have identical properties, 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:46.399 so they'd have to play with those quite a bit 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.919 in order to get it to work. Properly, but uh, 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:54.480 they Haggard he saw the opportunity to go after the 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:59.880 market by making something specific that would demonstrate the usefulness 0:22:59.920 --> 0:23:05.760 of transistors, and that was the transistor radio, Yes, the 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:09.720 regency radio t R one, Yeah, which became a huge 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:16.639 collectors item. And and that was I mean, it was 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:20.960 a pretty revolutionary product. Here we had a radio that 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:23.840 used transistors in the in place of vacuum tubes more 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:27.520 or less, which meant it was a much smaller product 0:23:27.640 --> 0:23:31.680 than the vacuum tube based radios. And uh, you know 0:23:31.800 --> 0:23:33.760 that it took a lot of work on on t 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:37.280 A t I s part to build a transistor radio 0:23:37.359 --> 0:23:40.600 that had transistors with the right kind of frequencies to 0:23:41.320 --> 0:23:44.359 to actually pick up radio frequencies. It was it was 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:48.600 a lot of of research and development that went into this. 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:52.399 Do you know how much they cost when they launched. 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:56.879 I don't actually I didn't have that part and ninety cents, 0:23:57.359 --> 0:24:01.120 which Haggarty later said might have been a serious mistake 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:04.280 because they had poured so much money. T I had 0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:07.600 poured so much money into research and development and manufacturing 0:24:08.080 --> 0:24:12.879 to create the the radio that it was a lot 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:16.920 harder to recapture those expenses through the sale of the radio. 0:24:17.080 --> 0:24:18.880 For one thing, I think they were building the radio 0:24:18.960 --> 0:24:23.880 as a proof of concept and didn't realize how popular 0:24:24.000 --> 0:24:26.280 it was going to be and that they could have 0:24:26.400 --> 0:24:30.560 charged more money and sold just as many units. Uh 0:24:30.800 --> 0:24:33.680 so they said that this actually haggard, He said, the 0:24:33.760 --> 0:24:36.600 facts are that at sixty dollars or sixty five dollars, 0:24:36.640 --> 0:24:39.119 it wouldn't have made an iota of difference, meaning that 0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:42.000 people would have bought it just as just as many. 0:24:42.520 --> 0:24:47.720 And so that was one of t i's mistakes. In 0:24:47.800 --> 0:24:51.399 a way, it was incredibly successful, but they failed to 0:24:51.520 --> 0:24:57.520 capitalize on its success at the rate that they could have. Wow, 0:24:58.359 --> 0:25:00.879 well this is uh, it's funny. Twenty three minutes and 0:25:00.920 --> 0:25:03.280